"There's a misnomer that this [telemedicine] will overtake doctors. It will never overtake or replace a medical practitioner, a nurse; a physiotherapist. However, it will make them more accessible," Jill Fortuin, director of Telemedicine and mHealth at the Medical Research Council told News24.
Speaking at the agency's performance review workshop on Friday, CEO Virginia Petersen said her priorities on appointment – more than a year ago – were to achieve a clean audit, improve the grant payment system, improve service delivery and achieve automation.
She added that SASSA has made progress in achieving these priorities, with the biometric system assisting in rooting out fraud.
Read more: South African Social Security Agency biometrics pays off
According to the 2011 IT Web-JCSE Skills Survey, two thirds (66%) of companies from a wide range of industries are severely impacted by a shortage of ICT skills. International figures would certainly seem to back up this finding, with evidence that demand for ICT skills is not being met. This is unsurprising, given the way in which ICT has become the platform on which most, if not all, business now runs, with government catching up fast.
On Wednesday, the Worcester centre was fully equipped with a computer room containing 50 computer terminals, educational aids, internet connectivity and training facilities, Suraya Hamdulay, Vodacom’s head of corporate citizenship, said.
Read more: ZA: Western Cape: ICT centre to promote technology education
Infineon provides its SOLID FLASH SLE 77 security controller to Net1’s subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services for implementing this service.
Read more: South Africa issuing biometric smart card for social security